Natalie Zea aka Natalie biography

Real biography:

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Introduction

Natalie Zea (born March 17, 1975) is an American actress known for her role as Gwen Hotchkiss on the NBC daytime soap Passions, and for portraying Donald Sutherland's middle child and divorced daughter, Karen Darling, on Dirty Sexy Money on ABC. As good of a show as "DSM" is, her presence makes it worth getting a larger DVR hard drive.

Life Story

Zea was born in Harris County, Texas, and attended Monahans High School, graduating in 1993. She then graduated from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, which has graduated stars like Paul Sorvino and Gretchen Mol. We would imagine Career Day gets fairly tedious at this school, but it's good if you're looking for autographs.

Zea had a few small film roles before joining the cast of Passions in 2000 as Gwen Hotchkiss, replacing exiting actress Liza Huber. Zea left the show in 2002, and was replaced by Huber. The fanfare the changeover received amounted to a man's voiceover saying, "Today, the part of Gwen Hotchkiss will be played by Liza Huber. Just try to remember her from a while ago and forget the other person you've been watching five days a week for the past two years."

She has made several different guest appearances in primetime, guest starring on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2001. In 2004 she made several guest stints on FX's tough cop drama The Shield playing a love interest to Michael Chiklis's Det. Vic Mackey. This would be the first time a television drama has taken the "Really Hot Woman Loves Fat Guy" conceit seen in almost every sitcom.

In 2005, Zea debuted as Trish Agermeyer, the sexy surveillance technician on the short-lived ABC show Eyes. More recently, she made a guest appearance on the 2005-06 season finale of Without a Trace. Anthony LaPaglia found her!

It was widely speculated that Zea and former Passions co-star, Travis Schuldt, began dating after they had both left the show in 2002 and that they were engaged by early 2007. However, when asked in interviews Zea denied the engagement and has not confirmed a romantic relationship between the two. It's soooooo true, though. Like, sooooooo true.